I am considering migrating to Firebird. To have a "quick start" approach I downloaded the trial of a conversion tool (DBConvert) and tried it.

I just picked up a random tool, this tool doesn't convert procedures, functions and triggers (I don't think it is a limit of the trial since there is not an explicit reference to sp, sf and triggers in the link above).

Anyway by trying that tool I had the message:

The DB cannot be converted
successfully because some FK names are
too long.

This is because in some tables I have FK whose description is > 32 chars.

Is this a real Firebird limit or it is possible to overcome it somehow (of course renaming the FK is an extreme option because it is extra work)?

Anyway how to convert a SQL Server database fully to Firebird? Is there a valid tool? Did someone succeed in a conversion of non trivial databases?

@user193655, if renaming the FK is an **extreme** option because it is **extra work** then recoding by hand (which is most likely, unless there is some gee whiz program to do it for you, which I highly doubt) all the procedures, functions, and triggers, is going to kill you!
–
KM.Jun 3 '10 at 13:47

in my case I have many FK and relatively limited numbers of functions and procedures. Triggers are just there for customers where I made some extra customization. So writing them manually is maybe an option, but time = money so if a tool does 80% of the work instead of 60% I can consider using it.
–
user193655Jun 3 '10 at 13:52

Anyway with sp_rename it is quite easy to rename FK and indexes, so in principle it will not be too much painful.
–
user193655Jun 3 '10 at 14:15

Database workbench trial helped me understand that I shuold also consider Postgresql, because probably the migration is smoother in that case. I will evaluate both. Thanks.
–
user193655Jun 4 '10 at 9:13

Anyway you suggest to start with a tool and then manually fix the result?
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user193655Jun 3 '10 at 13:27

if that tool can do a good chunk of the conversion - yes. Use the tool for as much as it can handle, and fine tune the rest manually.
–
marc_sJun 3 '10 at 17:02

1

You can use Database Workbench to do the tables, indices, constraints etc, it will automatically match the best datatypes and so on. Triggers, Stored Procedures are a different beast as the SQL that MS SQL Server uses is very different form Firebird, you need to convert those by hand.
–
Martijn ToniesJun 15 '10 at 8:12